Monday, 1 December 2008

How To....Push Loop

Note: The first thing to do when wanting to learn to push loop is wait until you have a windy day, meaning slightly overpowered, not to the point where you cant hold onto your sail but enough wind that you are fully powered up. Secondly especially when attempting a push loop for the first time a steep ramp will help.

Step 1. As with a back loop you want to hit the wave or chop just as it's about to break, in my opinion with a push loop its more essential to get more vertical, this means trying to go as straight up as possible and with lots of speed.

Step 2 & 3. Ok, so your now airborne and thinking what the hell do I do now. Although it may not look like it you need to rotate just before the apex of your jump meaning try to rotate just before you actually get to the top of your jump. You do this by throwing your weight back and looking over you shoulder down at the water as well as opening up your sail so your clew is heading into the wind. Do not try and push your sail around, it doesn't work that way, it's the clew of your sail pointing into the wind that actually rotates you or pulls you around. This takes a bit of practice but, as with any, move be patient.

Step 4. Now you will be looking directly over your equipment through your sail and straight down at the water. This part I must say when not used to it will feel unnatural and you will be very tempted to bail which is common. I spent a good couple of weeks bailing continually at this point. You must tell yourself to hang on no matter what. This is where you push your sail, meaning push your back hand down or your boom end of your sail down towards the water. At the same time, drag the sail forwards with your front hand. This will start to bring you upright again. The key here is to concentrate on not over rotating which is also common and landing on your back which everyone does from time to time. Its as simple as this - to perfect your landing push until you are upright and then sheet in, think of your sail as your car accelerator if you don't want to stop rotating just keep pushing and you will always over rotate. By sheeting in, this is your brake to stop rotating you must sheet in and fill your sail with wind. Its about playing with this part of the move for a while and getting used to when to push and when to sheet in.

Step 5. Land your board tail first, do this by extending your back leg towards the water. This will avoid a flat landing as well as preventing a broken board!

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Welcome to the site!Aswell as regular features and news updates from Fuerte, I am going to be using this site to promote my windsurfing clinics.
After 15 years on the island,having competed in the PWA freestyle world cup and now representing Fanatic Boards and North Sails, I have decided to give something back to the sport which has given me so much over the years.
My aim is to provide clinics "tailor-made"for each individual, with a strong emphasis on practical in-the-water instruction, backed up by on-the-beach tuition and video analysis. The consistent conditions here in Fuerte make learning so much easier and, perhaps equally important, more fun than the typically inconsistent, cold UK - why not come over for a week and improve your windsurfing by a year!!!I can help with any manoeuvres from carve-gybe through to advanced jumping and freestyle, just email me with your wish list and we'll take it from there! Over the next few months, I am going to be video-chronicling manoeuvres which you can check out on the right in my tricktionary sections. This will give you some idea of the things we can work on, or, if you can't make it over here, you may find them useful to help understand and break down a manoeuvre you would like to learn (hopefully, the slow-mo will help in this respect!).Just click on the trick and scroll down..........Anyway, keep checking it out as I have loads more in my bag of tricks and will be updating as and when I get the footage.If you're interested, e-mail me on gibboinfuerte@yahoo.co.uk See ya in Fuerte? Stephen.............